Add one more to the cast of McG‘s This Means War, in which Chris Pine and Tom Hardy go to war over the affections of Reese Witherspoon. (Angela Bassett was just cast the other day.) Mad Men‘s Abigail Spencer has signed on; she’ll play Tom Hardy’s ex-wife. Personally, I might do more fighting over her than Reese Witherspoon, but that’s just me. [THR]

After the break, Ben Foster joins a Mark Wahlberg movie, and John Singleton will direct the younger Hemsworth. Read More »

Got to hand it to Collider: they’re scouring the American Film Market scarfing up info on a ton of new films being represented there this week. The latest two are Abducted, which is the first post-Twilight film for Taylor Lautner, and ATM, which is based on a script hatched by Chris Sparling, aka the screenwriter on Buried.

Synopsis for each and an image for ATM are after the break. Read More »

Elisabeth Röhm has joined the cast of John Singleton‘s Bourne-styled teen action film Abduction. The film stars The Twilight Saga: New Moon star Taylor Lautner as a teenager named Nathan “who has long felt disconnected from his parents, and figures out why. That unleashes a chain of violent events.”

After discovering his own baby picture on a missing persons website, he realizes a deep dark secret — his parents kidnapped him as a child and raised him as their own. This realization unlocks a huge conspiracy, and Nathan and his girlfriend must go on the run. I’ve heard it’s Bourne meets Hitchcock for the TwilightDisturbia crowd.

Ricky Business reports that Röhm will play Lautner character’s biological mother, a role in which Emily Mortimer had previously been cast.

Taylor Lautner‘s action film Abduction, to be directed by John Singleton, just got an extra dose of class. Sigourney Weaver is joining the cast as “a psychiatrist to Lautner’s character, who discovers his own baby picture on a missing persons website.” Also in the supporting cast are Lily Collins and Alfred Molina. [Variety]

After the break, Ashley Judd is back, and HBO’s movie blogger drama gets yet another cast member. Read More »

I really want to write more about Melancholia, the upcoming film from Lars Von Trier, but we just don’t know very much right now. What we do know today is that John Hurt has joined the cast. Always great to see him in a new film, and it will be nice to see him really in a Trier movie, rather than just hearing him. (Hurt narrated Dogville and Manderlay, and did a fantastic job of it, too.)

Hurt joins Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Kiefer Sutherland, Charlotte Rampling, Udo Kier and Stellan and Alexander Skarsgard. The “beautiful film about the end of the world” shoots in July. [THR]

We’ve been hearing about a possible Luke Cage movie for a few years now, and with Marvel Studios gearing up for some lower budget comic book adaptations, could it be soon before we finally see Cage on the big screen? The Los Angeles Times mentioned that Marvel has already begun talks with “a notable Hollywood star” about the property.

Not long ago we heard that John Singleton would be in full-on director for hire mode as head of the Taylor Lautner action thriller Abduction. Everybody’s got to eat, right? And if Lautner really is going to be as huge as studio execs believe, that could buy a hell of a banquet for Singleton.

Now Singleton has a follow-up project set: another action thriller called Layover, which includes a group of villains that anyone who has flown in the past few years can be ready to hate: corrupt TSA agents. Read More »

I’ll be fairly well amused if Kellan Lutz ends up being the real breakout star from Twilight. He’s in a few films now, and even though he lost the lead role in Conan, the fact that he’s not angling for ridiculous paydays (a la Taylor Lautner) makes me think he’ll be around for a minute.

Now he’s set to co-star with Samuel L. Jackson in Deathgames. Former VFX supervisor Jonah Loop is making his directorial debut with the film, which is about “a young man (Lutz) who is kidnapped and forced into the savage world of a modern gladiator arena, where men fight to the death for entertainment of the online masses. Jackson orchestrates the games, overseeing them from his computer lair with the help of twin ladies who see to his every desire.” Jackson’s life sounds more or less like the existence I dreamed of when I was 16. [THR]

After the break, more on another Twilight star’s new movie, and Ethan Hawke is attached to a mysterious movie. Read More »

John Singleton has signed on to direct The Twilight Saga: New Moon star Taylor Lautner‘s next project — a Bourne-styled action film called Abduction. Lionsgate acquired the spec script after a week long bidding war in February. Rumor has it that the project sold for close to $1 million. Singleton is of course the two-time Oscar-nominated writer/director of Boyz in the Hood, Poetic Justice, Higher Learning, Shaft, 2 Fast 2 Furious, and Four Brothers.

John Singleton has exited 20th Century Fox’s big screen adaptation of the A-Team. Apparently the project, which has gone through a number of rewrites, is still not ready for prime time. Fox believes they need more time to develop the script, but Singleton is moving on. We no final draft, no director, and no announced cast, I wouldn’t expect to see this film anytime soon. The film was originally set to hit theaters in June 2009, but won’t likely see release until a year later at earliest. Personally, I’ve always been under the theory that the A-Team television series is all the A-Team we need. I for one hope this project falls down into the deep depths of development hell.

Other Fox release changes include: Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakuel moving to Christmas 2009, pushing the Dwayne Johnson family comedy Tooth Fairy to November 13th 2009, and Christopher Columbus’ teen comedy I Love You Beth Cooper will now hit theaters on Jult 31st, instead of February 13th 2009.